Committee
Public Petitions Committee, 11 Sep 2001
11 Sep 2001 · S1 · Public Petitions Committee
Item of business
New Petitions
The petitioner has asked all the questions that have been in my mind and that people are asking all the time. I agree that there should be a full public inquiry into the outbreak. My party is also on record as saying that, although I do not see it listed among the petition's supporters. Perhaps you could add the Scottish National Party to the petition's list of supporters, which already includes the Scottish Green Party.Some of the information that we hear is puzzling. In one debate, a member from the Borders told us that the area's abattoir is up to EU standards and that it uses only 15 per cent of its capacity. Farmers from the area prefer to go to Newtown because, presumably, it must be cheaper to do so. Many questions arise out of that simple fact. Why did not the farmers go to the local abattoir? Perhaps if they had done so, we would not have had such terrible results. I have been amazed at the vast movement of animals that has been revealed during the foot-and-mouth crisis. A massive number of animals go from one end of Britain to the other—I had not appreciated just how much of that was going on. We need to get all the facts out in the open. I spent a week in the Borders and, on the advice of the National Farmers Union, never strayed from the main roads; I did not want to be the one who brought foot-and-mouth to the Highland line. What was so sad was the effect not only on those whose animals had been slaughtered but on the hotels. I stayed in an hotel in one central town where I was the only guest. It was Easter, yet everyone else had cancelled. The same applied to caravan parks and bed and breakfasts, while shops had no customers. The whole thing is frightening not only for farmers. Nothing less than a public inquiry will satisfy the public's concerns.
In the same item of business
The Convener:
Lab
This is a historic occasion, in that it is almost the first time in the world that a videolink has been established and a webcast has taken place simultaneou...
Ronnie Eunson:
I am Ronnie Eunson. With me are Drew Ratter and Jim Budge. Another person may join us, but they have been held up.I thank the committee for giving us the cha...
The Convener:
Lab
Thank you. The hard, interactive part comes next.
Rhoda Grant (Highlands and Islands) (Lab):
Lab
What should the scheme provide? How can it provide useful assistance to Shetland?
Drew Ratter:
I am a councillor, an agricultural journalist, a crofter and a member of the Crofters Commission. For a long time, I have been committed to area-based suppor...
Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con):
Con
What discussions have taken place with the National Farmers Union of Scotland? Does it support the idea? Mr Eunson said that farmers in Shetland were losing ...
Ronnie Eunson:
I am sure that the NFUS would support our contentions. We are not looking for extra funds. Under the hill livestock compensatory allowance, Shetland used to ...
John Farquhar Munro (Ross, Skye and Inverness West) (LD):
LD
Good morning, gentlemen. I am a crofter, like many of you up there, and I appreciate the difficulties that you are encountering. However, the hard fact of th...
Ronnie Eunson:
I accept what you say. We do not yet know the breakdown of the figures. We have not been privileged with that information. It is difficult to believe that mo...
Drew Ratter:
No matter what has happened in the rest of Scotland, we have done the empirical work in Shetland that shows that approximately 75 per cent of people are lose...
Dorothy-Grace Elder (Glasgow) (SNP):
SNP
Would you kindly give us an idea, today or by post, of the general cost-of-living problem for those in the agriculture industry in Shetland? For instance, wh...
Ronnie Eunson:
I am sure that we can furnish you with those details. We can find out the figures and send you them. That would be no problem.
Helen Eadie (Dunfermline East) (Lab):
Lab
I am pleased to see Drew Ratter. We have worked together.
Drew Ratter:
Hello, Helen.
Helen Eadie:
Lab
We worked together through the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions, which is a Europewide organisation. I know that Drew Ratter is on the bureau of the...
Drew Ratter:
That has certainly happened. Every member state makes a proposal under the EU's rural development regulation and those proposals differ enormously. It would ...
Dr Winnie Ewing (Highlands and Islands) (SNP):
SNP
Good morning, Shetland. It is good to see you. Am I right to say that farmers in Shetland are almost all members of the Scottish Crofters Union rather than t...
Jim Budge:
Good morning. The NFUS has about 400 members in Shetland. I do not have figures for the Scottish Crofters Union. The NFUS has been active in working with the...
Drew Ratter:
Speaking as someone who is outside all the organisations on the petition, I want to say that the petition's case is not partisan. The council brings together...
The Convener:
Lab
As was mentioned, the committee also received a petition from Islay and Jura. We decided to seek the Executive's views and we expect to receive those views s...
Ronnie Eunson:
No, we do not. Some of us were lucky enough to meet Mr Finnie on three occasions the last time that he was up here. We carefully made points about the implic...
John Farquhar Munro:
LD
This year's budget allocation is in the region of £60 million. That figure will diminish, over the next two years, to something like £50 million. Although th...
Ronnie Eunson:
We thank you for that advice; we will certainly lobby our Westminster MP. However, Edinburgh cannot shake off the responsibility by simply saying that this i...
Dr Sylvia Jackson (Stirling) (Lab):
Lab
If I heard correctly, the witnesses said that 75 per cent were losers and 25 per cent were gainers from the new proposals. In Stirling, my constituency, I ha...
Drew Ratter:
In Shetland it is difficult to say. We considered the issue and arrived at those figures. Some of the losers who are active in agriculture are losing in a ve...
The Convener:
Lab
That is the end of our question-and-answer session. The witnesses will be staying with us so that they can hear our discussion of what to do with the petitio...
Rhoda Grant:
Lab
I agree with those suggestions. It is important that the petition goes to the Rural Development Committee. I sit on that committee, which has done a short in...
Helen Eadie:
Lab
I support what the convener and Rhoda Grant have said, and I would like to offer another suggestion. We should also submit the petition, for information only...
Phil Gallie:
Con
Sylvia Jackson asked a good question, to which we did not really get an answer, about winners and losers. We all recognise the arguments about peripherality ...
The Convener:
Lab
I should have mentioned for the record that petitions PE384 and PE372 have both been referred to the Executive for comment. The Executive has seen PE384 as w...